Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
It’s been 11 years since the day that shook America to the core, with aftershocks felt by every country around the world. In these 11 years, our country has changed: It’s grown harder and more cautious, but at the same time stronger and more understanding. We’ve gone to war, and worked to end the wars….
There was a time when journalism attracted the best, the brightest, and the boldest. Journalists were brilliant and famous, changing the way the world saw the world. And yes, they even got paid for this. At New Voices, we’re keeping that era around. New Voices Magazine is a national, independent magazine written by and for Jewish…
If Yeshiva University is “the flagship institution of Modern Orthodoxy,” as it is often called, then Mechon Hadar is the flagship institution of the traditional egalitarian set, a not-quite-movement made up mostly of independent minyanim concentrated in a few major cities. To most students at Y.U., Hadar — which runs America’s only full-time egalitarian yeshiva — would appear to be obviously out of bounds, but a few supplement their Y.U. education with the more liberal, mixed-gender learning available at Hadar.
I walked into my high school classmate’s wedding last week and was unexpectedly overwhelmed with babies. Apparently, since our class’ last wedding/reunion (that is what they really are, after all), half my classmates had gone and gotten knocked up by their husbands. I still don’t feel mature enough to be choosing our country’s next president…
When the paper I run, The Beacon, ran an op-ed entitled “Why it’s Time for Jews to Get Over the Holocaust,” the reaction was incensed. In fact, it was more than incensed. Readers were so wounded by the suggestion that they “get over” an event so personal and so tragic for so many of them that…
I want everyone to think about this for a second. Jake Gyllenhaal is beautiful. He is also Jewish (see his appearance on ‘Shalom Sesame’ above). Scarlett Johansson, coincidentally, is both beautiful and Jewish as well. I think we need to create a shidduch here. For some reason, no one else has considered the implications of…
It’s not always immediately obvious to the casual observer what the real difference is between Orthodox and Modern Orthodox Judaism. Actually, even to me, the two communities, on the surface, seem pretty similar. So one of us likes to think we’re modern. We’re cutting edge. But when you walk into shul on Hoshana Rabba and…
For many American Persian Jews, self-identification can be complicated. Whether they were born in Iran or they are first-generation Americans, the culture and patriotism of their parents’ homeland can clash with their lives in America. This inner conflict has been exacerbated by the ongoing political tensions between Iran and the United States. Mix in some public musings on the possibility of war with Iran from Israel, and Persian American Jews (or are they Jewish Persian Americans? American Persian Jews?) are effectively being pulled in three directions.
The Persian Jewish community in American remains quite insular, concentrated in a few close-knit enclaves, including one on Long Island. And while the western label Orthodox doesn’t quite apply, Persian Jewish religious practice certainly has more in common with contemporary Orthodox Judaism than it does with any of the liberal streams. Because of all of these factors, Yeshiva University, the Modern Orthodox university with its various schools scattered around the city of New York, has a particularly high concentration of Persian Jews.
“I feel an internal conflict,” admitted Sarit Bassal, a student at Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University.
I’ve reached a point in my personal musings on Modern Orthodoxy that I’ve started to wonder whether such a thing is even possible: the merging of modern life and religious Judaism. Is Modern Orthodoxy a contradiction in terms? The Modern Orthodoxy ideal is living and engaging in the modern world while maintaining a lifestyle committed…
Avi Shafran’s recent article in the Forward discussing gay “reparative” therapy has made me reflect on my philosophy of life. It’s always difficult for me to know the balance between halacha and happiness. I grew up in a world where Judaism came before all else. I still believe strongly in the importance of keeping the…
I wouldn’t call myself a rabid feminist. In fact, sometimes I’m so downright feminine that I put Stepford wives to shame. But today two things happened that made me want to whip off my bra and light it on fire right in the middle of my college’s lobby. Let’s start in the classroom. In one…
This past weekend I had one of those all-too-rare Shabbatot, where I spent the day with friends who I got to know better, and strangers who quickly became friends. Shabbat was a mixture of eating, sleeping, and long conversations where we all shared and learned from one another. It was the kind of weekend that…
Perhaps you’ve heard of the recent trend among a small sect of ultra-Orthodox women to follow the example of modesty set by Muslim women by wearing burqas that completely disguise the shapes of their bodies. Most Orthodox communities are confounded by this latest stringency, thankfully. Us Modern Orthodox women needn’t fear that this will spread…
My most recent blog post, some musings on issues of shomer negiah (boys and girls touching) in the Modern Orthodox community, segues quite naturally into a discussion of dating. Dating is a bit of a sore topic for many students at here at Stern College, Yeshiva University’s all-women undergrad school. Warranted or not, there’s a…
You may recall my post last week about sex at Yeshiva University, in which I wrote: Sex. Ostensibly there is nothing of the sort at Yeshiva University. As the exemplar of American Modern Orthodoxy, YU has something of a pristine reputation. […] YU is definitely more sheltered than most places; if someone’s looking for a…